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U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves, left, was aboard the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter involved in the collision with American Eagle Flight 5342 on Wednesday. Staff Sgt. Ryan O’Hara was the helicopter’s crew chief.
The Washington Post
16:14 JST, February 1, 2025
The Army on Friday identified two of three soldiers presumed dead after a disastrous collision this week between a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Eagle passenger jet south of Washington but took the rare step of withholding the third soldier’s name at the request of her family.
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves, 39, and Staff Sgt. Ryan O’Hara, 28, were on the UH-60 helicopter, the Army said in a statement. The third soldier, a pilot, was a woman, said two officials familiar with the issue who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.
All 64 people aboard American Eagle Flight 5342, which was on its final approach to Reagan National Airport, and the three soldiers are believed to be dead, authorities have said.
The name of the third soldier, identified by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday as a “young captain,” was withheld as the search continued for her and Eaves’s remains and after President Donald Trump insisted that diversity, equity and inclusion programs were to blame for the disaster. Trump also has criticized the Black Hawk pilots directly, repeatedly questioning why they did not change course.
The Wednesday night crash also has become fodder for unfounded conspiracy theories, with critics spreading baseless claims on social media that there is no way such a disaster could have been an accident.
The Army, in its statement Friday, said that O’Hara, of Lilburn, Georgia, is “believed to be deceased pending positive identification” of his remains. He maintained helicopters and served as a crew member during flights. The remains of Eaves, of Great Mills, Maryland, and the third soldier have not yet been recovered, officials said.
The Army has classified Eaves and the unidentified soldier as “duty status-whereabouts unknown,” or DUSTWUN. Such classifications are used when Army officials believe that someone is involuntarily missing but there is not enough evidence to declare them as deceased.
Eaves’s wife, Carrie, declined to comment Friday. O’Hara’s father told The Washington Post on Thursday that he, the soldier’s mother and his sister were “just absolutely devastated” as they grappled with the memory of speaking with him Wednesday, hours before the crash.
The collision occurred at 8:47 p.m. Wednesday as the helicopter was involved in a nighttime training mission while flying to and from Davison Army Airfield at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, about 15 miles south of Washington. The soldiers were stationed there as members of the 12th Aviation Battalion, a unit whose mission includes transporting senior U.S. officials around the area.
During the flight, Eaves served as an instructor pilot, with the unidentified captain in an annual proficiency evaluation that required a nighttime flight. It was not clear which soldier was piloting the aircraft when the collision occurred.
Trump took to Truth Social on Friday morning to criticize the soldiers, saying the Black Hawk was “flying too high, by a lot.” The president added that the aircraft was “far above the 200-foot limit,” a reference to a restriction imposed by federal authorities on helicopters in that area to avoid collisions. “That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it?”
Defense Department officials have said the helicopter was traveling down an aerial corridor, known among pilots as Route 4, that mostly hugs the east bank of the Potomac. Hegseth said Thursday that there was an “elevation issue” during the flight, and flight tracker data shows that the Black Hawk appeared to exceed the 200-foot limit.
An Army official, speaking on the condition of anonymity Friday to discuss an ongoing investigation, urged “caution and patience” until the investigations conclude. Many aviation disasters have multiple contributing factors.
Eaves served in the Navy from 2007 to 2017 before becoming an Army Black Hawk pilot, the Army said in another statement. O’Hara had been in the service since 2014 and deployed to Afghanistan in 2017.
The soldiers’ commander, Lt. Col. Erika Holownia, said in the statement that all were exceptional leaders and teammates.
“Their experience and dedication made our unit better, every day. As we mourn this tragic loss, our top priority is supporting their families, friends, and fellow Soldiers,” Holownia said. “Our thoughts and prayers are also with the families and friends of American Eagle Flight 5342.”
